Tracy Morgan is in deep shit after Queen of celebrity gossip, Perez Hilton, relayed a message from a "Perezcious reader" that the 30 Rock star had launched into an extensive homophobic rant during a show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN.
The remarks and subsequent backlash is but another entry in the big book of celebrities -- from Mel Gibson to Michael Richards to Kobe Bryant -- coming under fire for hate speech. For Tracy Morgan's apology and the Facebook note that started it all, check the cut.
Former Tracy Morgan fan and avid Facebooker, Kevin Rogers, published an incensed note directly upon exiting the comic's show in Nashville. The note, entitled "WHY I NO LONGER "LIKE" TRACY MORGAN - A Must Read," is lengthy, so we won't repost the whole thing, but here are some crucial excerpts:
I figured at some point the gay jokes would fly and I'm well prepared for a good ribbing of straight gay humor. I have very thick skin when it comes to humor; I can dish and I can take.
What Mr. Rogers couldn't take, however, was the seemingly endless litany of straight-up, clueless homophobia:
-"All this gay shit is crazy"
-"Born This Way is bullshit"
-"Gay is a choice because God don't make no mistakes"
-"There is no way a woman could love and have sexual desire for another woman"
-"Gays need to quit being pussies and not be whining about something as insignificant as bullying"
-"Gay is something that kids learn from the media"
-If Tracy's son was gay...he "better talk to me like a man and not in a gay voice or I'll pull out a knife and stab that little n**** to death"
-Tracy said he "doesn't f***ing care if he pisses off some gays, because if they can take a f***ing dick up their ***...they can take a f***ing joke."
Almost as disappointing as the tirade's hateful yammering is the total lack of anything funny. Wasn't this supposed to be a comedy show?
It took Perez Hilton a week to repost the story, which he did around 3 a.m. California time. By the early afternoon, the story reached far and wide across the blogosphere, prompting a speedy, standard, boring apology from Morgan.
"I want to apologize to my fans and the gay and lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I'm not a hateful person and don't condone any kind of violence against others," Morgan said in a statement.
"While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context."
We expect loonies like Mel Gibson to be racist. And while we don't condone sporty machismo, is anyone completely surprised when basketball players go there? But when it comes to once lovable Tracy Morgan, Cultist can only express our face-palming disappointment with a disapproving, Et tu, Tracy?